Regions of Turkey,

The 1st Geography Congress held in Ankara between 6-21 June 1941 divided Turkey into seven regions after long discussions and work. These geographical regions were separated according to their climate, location, flora and fauna, human habitat, agricultural diversities, transportation, topography and so on. At the end, 4 side regions and 3 inner regions were named according to their neighborhood to the four seas surrounding Turkey and positions in Anatolia. Most of the cities' borders are within the territory of a single region, but sometimes can be within two, even three regions (such as Sivas, Afyon, Kahramanmaras).

Approximate Real land occupied by the regions within the total of Turkeys' whole territory, based on (approximately) Real 814.000 km2 considering the topographical formations instead of Projected 780.500 km2 (301,353 square miles):

1. Eastern Anatolian...... 171.000 km2 (66,023 sq mi)
2. Central Anatolia......... 162.000 km2 (62,548 sq mi)
3. Blacksea................... 146.178 km2 (56,439 sq mi)
4. Mediterranean............ 122.100 km2 (47,143 sq mi)
5. Aegean....................... 85.000 km2 (32,818 sq mi)
6. Marmara...................... 67.300 km2 (25,984 sq mi)
7. Southeastern Anatolia... 61.000 km2 (23,552 sq mi)

Note: In today's maps, Real Area is computed after the calculations of the topography (elevations for example) of a country or region. Meanwhile Projected Area of a country or region is calculated on a birds' eye view without considering elevations. Projected Area and Real Area point to the same value for lakes and seas, but on the mountainous regions or countries the Real Area value will be greater than Projected Area value. So, greater value difference between these two mapping techniques means that country or region has many elevations (mountains).

To learn more about the provinces and historic sites of each region, please click the appropriate links or on the map above.